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In town -
today
Missouri Festival of Arts, Lyric
Theater, BoonvUe, 8 p. m.,
Volker String Quartet
Oppooests of public school bos
service limits meeting, 7: M pja.,
Farm and Savings Association
community center, 725 E.
Broadway.
City Cotmcfl, 7 pjn,, council
chambers, fourth budget session.
Exhibits
Continuing: Ellis Library, '
Textiles Through Two Millenia
and Italian Baroque Drawings, 2
to 5 pan. Public library, Scenes
from Columbia Watercolors by
Lois Mikrut and Twentieth
Century doll collection loaned by
Lois Miller.
Theater listings, Page 11B J
Insight
Opium sales
in Thailand
continue
Lax production ban
allows tribesmen
to increase income
ByBobTamartda
Chicago Daily News
DOI PUI MOUNTAINS, Thailand - I- n the dark shadows of a dirt- floor- ed
wooden hut, three men huddle around a
smoldering fire in one corner and. talk
business. A round of nods seals the deal.
It is the house of Juyee Sae Lee, a
Meo hill tribesman who grows opium
for a living. He has taken orders for the
new crop to be harvested in February
and March, a crop that is expected to at
least equal last year's bumper harvest.
He does not identify his two Thai
associates by name, but refers to them
simply as " business agents."
Introductions are short and the
" agents" vanish into the thick jungle- cover- ed
terrain.
Juyee is the village head responsible
for the welfare of 260 Meo villagers.
Though he realizes it is illegal to grow
opium, he is quick to point out, " I must
grow . good crops that make epod
assay bTCppertt& r OT- iSff-ly
members who live with him, good
money means $ 350 a year.
A lean, boney man with bronze
leathery skin, Juyee, 48, has been
growing opium since he was 7. He
helped his father then, as his son now
helps him.
Though opium cultivation has been
banned in Thailand for nearly two
decades, it still is practiced widely in
the northern mountains among the
estimated 500,000 hill tribesmen who
inhabit the notorious 75, O0O4quare- mil- e
( 195,000- square- kilomet- er) Golden
Triangle the highland region where
the borders of Thailand, Laos and
Burma meet.
For generations, opium has played a
vital role in the primitive economies of
the nomadic hill tribes, and it still does.
Nearly 50 per cent of the hill
tribesmen grow opium. In Thailand's
northern mountains four main tribes
the Meo, Yao, Lahu, Lisor are active
in opium farming.
Most of the poppy fields are in the
mountainous provinces of Chiang Mai,
Chiang Rai, Lampang, Mae Hong Son
and Tak, all located in the north about
400 miles ( 640 kilometers) from
Bangkok. The tribes combined produce
about 150 tons ( 135 tonnes) of opium a
year.
Ever since the late strongmen
Marshal Sari Thanarat banned opium
production and smoking in 1958,
Thailand's heroin addict population has
risen markedly. Out of a population of
41 million there are an estimated
300,000 heroin addicts in the country
today, a problem that drug experts say
is nearly out of control.
The drug problem is traceable to the
uncontrolled opium cultivation,
according to drug authorities. ( In the
United States, with five times the
population of Thailand, there are an
estimated 626,000 heroin addicts,
making the United States the target
user of heroin of any country . )
The Thai government has been
particularly careful not to enforce the
opium laws because it does not want to
alienate the hill tribes, who could
become a source for recruits of the
growing ranks of Thailand's
Communist insurgents.
The enforcement is so lax that the
Moo tourist agency in Chiang Mai
( See M, Page ISA)
68th Year - No. 285 Good Morning! it's Thursday , Aug. 26, 976 2 Sections - 28 Pages - 1 5 Cents
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BBoBBSBBBiBiBBBSBuBBBittBBBBS iiM5ft- 355itA-S
wwf JSn9HHHHB3RBBH6n
ISBBBBBtBUiMUBUBiBsSlBBiBBBBIBtXBBBBKmL m jBHflMBfllBBflBlttiBBBiillM
Presidential Press Secretary Ron Nessen, right,
addresses the press in Vail, Colo., as President
Ford directs the pose of his deputy campaign
director, Stu Spencer, for a group photo of his top
advisers. The photo came after Ford had
announced a series of campaign staff changes.
The President's other advisers are, from left,
Bill Greener, Dick Cheney, Jim Baker, Rogers
Morton, Bob Teetor and John Deardourff. ( UPI
telephoto)
Ford shakes up
campaign staff,
seeks harmony
N. Y. Times Service
VAIL, Colo President Ford
revamped his campaign organization
Wednesday in an effort to solidify his
political base in a conservative,
minonty party and reach beyond it to
moderate and progressive voters
The President announced that James
A. Baker III, the political novice who
directed the crucial delegate search
that clinched Ford's nomination by the
Republican party, immediately was
replacing Rogers C B Morton as
chairman of the President Ford
Committee
Baker, the third chairman in five
months, said he would conduct an
aggressive, nationwide campaign, but
he acknowledged that ' we've only got
about 60 days" to overcome the early
lead of Jimmy Carter, the Democratic
nominee.
After a three- ho- ur meeting with his
senior political advisers in a rented
mountain lodge, the President also
announced the following campaign
decisions
Morton, who said last week that he
did not plan to yield the campaign
chairmanship, was assigned an
essentially symbolic role as leader of a
new campaign steering committee
Vice President Nelson Rockefeller
and John B. Connally, leaders of
competitive party blocs, were
summoned to join Ford and his running
mate, Sen Robert J. Dole of Kansas, in
final strategy meetings and a display
of harmony here today and Fnday
Ford designated Dean Burch, a
one- tim- e chairman of the party and of
the Federal Communications
Commission, and William D
Ruckelshaus, the former deputy
attorney general, to represent the
President in negotiations with Carter's
aides on arrangements for a series of
campaign debates
Although Ford charactenzed the
changes as logical steps to produce a
' great team" for his campaign, several
advisers said pnvately that the moves
were meant to strengthen the
President's candidacy for a contest
focused on the major industrial states
Figures show local business is booming
ByJohnYoch
Missourian staff writer
Keeping pace with the nationwide
economic recovery, business in
Columbia is booming, municipal sales- ta- x
revenue figures indicate. In
addition, most area businessmen seem
to. be optimistic about sales levels for
the rest of this year.
Actually, business was never really
tbafbad, businessmen say.
Hartley Banks Jr., president of First
Bank of Commerce, said " Columbia
never really slowed down that much"
during the nationwide recession, and
the unemployment rate never got very
high Local unemployment peaked at
4 1 per cent in August 1975
Columbia sales- ta- x revenues in the
first sis months of 1976 total $ 1,344,345,
up from $ 1,176,340 for the same penod
in 1975. For 1974, the figure was
$ 1,050,511, and for 1973 it was $ 930,023.
Adjusting these figuies to Consumer
Pnce Index dollar values of March 1967
to compensate for inflation, the city
collected $ 802,595 m the first six months
of 1976, a 7 66 per cent increase over the
$ 745,462 collected in the same period in
1975
This is several times the annual
increases in sales levels during the
1973- 7- 5 recession Comparing the first
half of 1975 with 1974, sales- ta- x
revenues increased only 1.55 per cent,
adjusting for inflation The increase
between 1973 and 1974 was 2 06 per cent
Nationwide, retail spending for the
first half of 1976 was up about 8 per cent
over 1975, adjusting for inflation, the
National Consumer Finance
Association reports
James Majors, store manager at J C
Penney, 601 Business Loop 70 W , said
his store has increased inventory levels
compared to the recession period, in
anticipation of increased consumer
buying
Majors said he thought individuals
had money available to spend even
during the recession The problem then
was that they tightened up and put
money into savings instead of
purchasing consumer goods, he said
Wal- Ma- rt Discount Stores, 600
Business Loop 70W , also has increased
sales over recession levels, said store
manager Dennis Harris He said his
( See AUTO, Page 16A)
U. N. paper says
slavery abounds
GENEVA, Switzerland ( UPI) - S-lavery
is still widespread, with
flagrant examples in Latin America
and Africa, according to a U. N. report
released Wednesday.
The report, drawn up by the Working
Group on Slavery of the U. N
Commission on Human Rights, said
children of the Ache Indians of
Paraguay were selling for the
equivalent of $ 2.
The report said forced labor also
exists in Equatorial Guinea, and " the
virtual enslavement of many peasants
for agricultural labor" prevails in four
Central American countries: El
Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and
Nicaragua.
The report said South Africa's
apartheid system amounts to the
practice of slavery while in Rhodesia
there is even a law legalizing slavery-like
practices
This 75- year-- old law, called the
" Masters and Servants Act," covers all
employes in domestic service,
agriculture, forestry, mining and
quarrying.
It stipulates punishment for absence
without leave, intoxication, careless or
improper performance of work,
disobedience, abusive or insulting
language, or leaving " masteV's service
without lawful cause."
" On discharge from pnson, if the
employe fails to resume his service, he
can be sentenced to successive
sentences of one month's imprisonment
under similar conditions until he
consents to and does resume his
service," the U N. report said
Bridge near McBaine
scheduled for repair
By Martha Polkey
Missourtaa staff writer
A bridge west of McBaine at the end
of Route K, used frequently by large
trucks, will be closed Monday for about
a week while it is being repaired.
The bridge will be refloored and a
supporting beam will be fixed, said
John Whiteside, Boone County map
coordinator.
The need for repairs was discovered
during an inspection earlier this week
by Bob Crabtree, a Kansas City
engineering consultant He inspected
four heavily used county bridges as
part of a state- financ- ed program.
Crabtree said two other bridges need
repairs in the near future. One is
located Vk miles ( 2.4 kilometers) north
of Easley on Smith Hatchery Road. The
other is 1 mile ( 1 6 kilometers) north of
Route NN near Harnsburg. A fourth
bridge near Harnsburg was in good
condition.
Northern District Judge Rodney
Smith said the four bndges were
inspected because they are on school
bus routes or on roads subject to heavy
traffic.
Crabtree commended the overall
maintenance of bridges.
" The county has done a great job
considering the limited amount of funds
they have been given," he said
Work to be done on the Easley bridge
will include installing guard rails, floor
repair and installing signs designating
the approach to the bridge. Repairs will
not begin for at least two weeks.
The bridge near Harnsburg needs re-alignment,
but repairs there will not
begin immediately either, Whiteside
said.
Crabtree said the bndges were
typical of county bndges. " They are
quite old, with some problems." He
estimated the bridges could last for
another five to 10 years, with the
exception of the McBaine bridge, which
with repairs would not need
replacement for up to 20 years.
Bus limit foes meet tonight
Persons opposing the Columbia
school board's decision to increase
mileage requirements for free
transportation for junior and senior
high school students will meet at 7: 30
pjn. today. The meeting will be in the .
community service room at the Farm
and Home Savings & Loan Association,
725 E. Broadway.
The board recently increased the
mileage requirement for Junior and
senior high school students from 2 miles
( 3.2 kilometers.) to 3tt miles ( 5.6
kilometers), meaning only those
students living more than 3V4 miles
from school are eligible for free
transportation.
A petition drive has been started to
restore school bus service to the
previous limits. A drive organizer said
the purpose of tonight's meeting is to
unify the groups supporting the
petition.
BtftjaTWBBiBBHwHPy ' MBKKKBBBBBBEtBKMBBKSttKUHKR
While' other parts of the Midwest suffer from devastating
drought conditions, Wednesday's showers brought some
relief to Columbia's dry weather and to pedestrians ready for
a change of pace. Sandy Dye, 103 Longfellow Lane, enjoys a
walk through some puddles left by the welcomed rain.
( Missourian photo by Tim McKay)
Midwest
drought
continues
By United Press International
While a brief thunderstorm brought
some relief to Columbia Wednesday,
Nebraska's governor planned to
declare 25 counties drought disaster
areas and forest fires crackled through
thousands of acres of Under- dr- y
woodlands in the Midwest northlands
Gov J J Exon said he would meet
with advisers Fnday and " based on the
information I have now, I will be
declaring a disaster area in some 25
counties "
The long dry summer baking much of
the Midwest appeared sure to take a
heavy toll in crops It was also the key
factor in two giant forest fires in
Michigan and Minnesota
" It's so dry in Upper Michigan and a
lot of Minnesota the air crackles," a
National Forest Service spokesman
said
More than 360 fire fighters from
seven states were trying to contain the
fire that has burned more than 30,000
acres ( 12,000 hectares) in Michigan's
Upper Peninsula
The fire in the Seney National
Wildhfe Refuge and the adjacent
Mamstique State Forest was
Michigan's worst of its kind in 37 years
Airborne tankers were flown in from
Aaska to water- bom- b the blaze Fire
fighters came from as far off as Idaho
Vacationing tourists were warned to
stay out of the area.
The fire fighters were hindered by
bogs and swamps
" It's difficult for the men to get into
many areas because they find
themselves waist deep in swamp," a
spokesman said " We just can't take
our equipment into some areas." He ,
said a bulldozer sank in one swamp. I
Two B17 bombers and six other
aircraft were dumping about 50,000
gallons ( 190,000 liters) of water a day on
the fire eating its way through 2,600
acres ( 1,040 hectares) of Minnesota's
eastern Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
It was the worst of 50 to 60 forest,
grass and peat bog fires going in the
state. State Conservation
Commissioner Robert Herbst called the
fire danger the " most serious since 1936
and possibly the worst since 1918."
While the drought belt prayed for
ram, thunderstorms broke out over the
Gulf and southeast Atlantic coast areas
and in parts of Nebraska, South
Dakota, Indiana, Kentucky and
Tennessee.

In town -
today
Missouri Festival of Arts, Lyric
Theater, BoonvUe, 8 p. m.,
Volker String Quartet
Oppooests of public school bos
service limits meeting, 7: M pja.,
Farm and Savings Association
community center, 725 E.
Broadway.
City Cotmcfl, 7 pjn,, council
chambers, fourth budget session.
Exhibits
Continuing: Ellis Library, '
Textiles Through Two Millenia
and Italian Baroque Drawings, 2
to 5 pan. Public library, Scenes
from Columbia Watercolors by
Lois Mikrut and Twentieth
Century doll collection loaned by
Lois Miller.
Theater listings, Page 11B J
Insight
Opium sales
in Thailand
continue
Lax production ban
allows tribesmen
to increase income
ByBobTamartda
Chicago Daily News
DOI PUI MOUNTAINS, Thailand - I- n the dark shadows of a dirt- floor- ed
wooden hut, three men huddle around a
smoldering fire in one corner and. talk
business. A round of nods seals the deal.
It is the house of Juyee Sae Lee, a
Meo hill tribesman who grows opium
for a living. He has taken orders for the
new crop to be harvested in February
and March, a crop that is expected to at
least equal last year's bumper harvest.
He does not identify his two Thai
associates by name, but refers to them
simply as " business agents."
Introductions are short and the
" agents" vanish into the thick jungle- cover- ed
terrain.
Juyee is the village head responsible
for the welfare of 260 Meo villagers.
Though he realizes it is illegal to grow
opium, he is quick to point out, " I must
grow . good crops that make epod
assay bTCppertt& r OT- iSff-ly
members who live with him, good
money means $ 350 a year.
A lean, boney man with bronze
leathery skin, Juyee, 48, has been
growing opium since he was 7. He
helped his father then, as his son now
helps him.
Though opium cultivation has been
banned in Thailand for nearly two
decades, it still is practiced widely in
the northern mountains among the
estimated 500,000 hill tribesmen who
inhabit the notorious 75, O0O4quare- mil- e
( 195,000- square- kilomet- er) Golden
Triangle the highland region where
the borders of Thailand, Laos and
Burma meet.
For generations, opium has played a
vital role in the primitive economies of
the nomadic hill tribes, and it still does.
Nearly 50 per cent of the hill
tribesmen grow opium. In Thailand's
northern mountains four main tribes
the Meo, Yao, Lahu, Lisor are active
in opium farming.
Most of the poppy fields are in the
mountainous provinces of Chiang Mai,
Chiang Rai, Lampang, Mae Hong Son
and Tak, all located in the north about
400 miles ( 640 kilometers) from
Bangkok. The tribes combined produce
about 150 tons ( 135 tonnes) of opium a
year.
Ever since the late strongmen
Marshal Sari Thanarat banned opium
production and smoking in 1958,
Thailand's heroin addict population has
risen markedly. Out of a population of
41 million there are an estimated
300,000 heroin addicts in the country
today, a problem that drug experts say
is nearly out of control.
The drug problem is traceable to the
uncontrolled opium cultivation,
according to drug authorities. ( In the
United States, with five times the
population of Thailand, there are an
estimated 626,000 heroin addicts,
making the United States the target
user of heroin of any country . )
The Thai government has been
particularly careful not to enforce the
opium laws because it does not want to
alienate the hill tribes, who could
become a source for recruits of the
growing ranks of Thailand's
Communist insurgents.
The enforcement is so lax that the
Moo tourist agency in Chiang Mai
( See M, Page ISA)
68th Year - No. 285 Good Morning! it's Thursday , Aug. 26, 976 2 Sections - 28 Pages - 1 5 Cents
iBKSBBBBBBKBBSBr uhLHSHBi uLHHBLshhHBv jBBSBB StBBBB
BBoBBSBBBiBiBBBSBuBBBittBBBBS iiM5ft- 355itA-S
wwf JSn9HHHHB3RBBH6n
ISBBBBBtBUiMUBUBiBsSlBBiBBBBIBtXBBBBKmL m jBHflMBfllBBflBlttiBBBiillM
Presidential Press Secretary Ron Nessen, right,
addresses the press in Vail, Colo., as President
Ford directs the pose of his deputy campaign
director, Stu Spencer, for a group photo of his top
advisers. The photo came after Ford had
announced a series of campaign staff changes.
The President's other advisers are, from left,
Bill Greener, Dick Cheney, Jim Baker, Rogers
Morton, Bob Teetor and John Deardourff. ( UPI
telephoto)
Ford shakes up
campaign staff,
seeks harmony
N. Y. Times Service
VAIL, Colo President Ford
revamped his campaign organization
Wednesday in an effort to solidify his
political base in a conservative,
minonty party and reach beyond it to
moderate and progressive voters
The President announced that James
A. Baker III, the political novice who
directed the crucial delegate search
that clinched Ford's nomination by the
Republican party, immediately was
replacing Rogers C B Morton as
chairman of the President Ford
Committee
Baker, the third chairman in five
months, said he would conduct an
aggressive, nationwide campaign, but
he acknowledged that ' we've only got
about 60 days" to overcome the early
lead of Jimmy Carter, the Democratic
nominee.
After a three- ho- ur meeting with his
senior political advisers in a rented
mountain lodge, the President also
announced the following campaign
decisions
Morton, who said last week that he
did not plan to yield the campaign
chairmanship, was assigned an
essentially symbolic role as leader of a
new campaign steering committee
Vice President Nelson Rockefeller
and John B. Connally, leaders of
competitive party blocs, were
summoned to join Ford and his running
mate, Sen Robert J. Dole of Kansas, in
final strategy meetings and a display
of harmony here today and Fnday
Ford designated Dean Burch, a
one- tim- e chairman of the party and of
the Federal Communications
Commission, and William D
Ruckelshaus, the former deputy
attorney general, to represent the
President in negotiations with Carter's
aides on arrangements for a series of
campaign debates
Although Ford charactenzed the
changes as logical steps to produce a
' great team" for his campaign, several
advisers said pnvately that the moves
were meant to strengthen the
President's candidacy for a contest
focused on the major industrial states
Figures show local business is booming
ByJohnYoch
Missourian staff writer
Keeping pace with the nationwide
economic recovery, business in
Columbia is booming, municipal sales- ta- x
revenue figures indicate. In
addition, most area businessmen seem
to. be optimistic about sales levels for
the rest of this year.
Actually, business was never really
tbafbad, businessmen say.
Hartley Banks Jr., president of First
Bank of Commerce, said " Columbia
never really slowed down that much"
during the nationwide recession, and
the unemployment rate never got very
high Local unemployment peaked at
4 1 per cent in August 1975
Columbia sales- ta- x revenues in the
first sis months of 1976 total $ 1,344,345,
up from $ 1,176,340 for the same penod
in 1975. For 1974, the figure was
$ 1,050,511, and for 1973 it was $ 930,023.
Adjusting these figuies to Consumer
Pnce Index dollar values of March 1967
to compensate for inflation, the city
collected $ 802,595 m the first six months
of 1976, a 7 66 per cent increase over the
$ 745,462 collected in the same period in
1975
This is several times the annual
increases in sales levels during the
1973- 7- 5 recession Comparing the first
half of 1975 with 1974, sales- ta- x
revenues increased only 1.55 per cent,
adjusting for inflation The increase
between 1973 and 1974 was 2 06 per cent
Nationwide, retail spending for the
first half of 1976 was up about 8 per cent
over 1975, adjusting for inflation, the
National Consumer Finance
Association reports
James Majors, store manager at J C
Penney, 601 Business Loop 70 W , said
his store has increased inventory levels
compared to the recession period, in
anticipation of increased consumer
buying
Majors said he thought individuals
had money available to spend even
during the recession The problem then
was that they tightened up and put
money into savings instead of
purchasing consumer goods, he said
Wal- Ma- rt Discount Stores, 600
Business Loop 70W , also has increased
sales over recession levels, said store
manager Dennis Harris He said his
( See AUTO, Page 16A)
U. N. paper says
slavery abounds
GENEVA, Switzerland ( UPI) - S-lavery
is still widespread, with
flagrant examples in Latin America
and Africa, according to a U. N. report
released Wednesday.
The report, drawn up by the Working
Group on Slavery of the U. N
Commission on Human Rights, said
children of the Ache Indians of
Paraguay were selling for the
equivalent of $ 2.
The report said forced labor also
exists in Equatorial Guinea, and " the
virtual enslavement of many peasants
for agricultural labor" prevails in four
Central American countries: El
Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and
Nicaragua.
The report said South Africa's
apartheid system amounts to the
practice of slavery while in Rhodesia
there is even a law legalizing slavery-like
practices
This 75- year-- old law, called the
" Masters and Servants Act," covers all
employes in domestic service,
agriculture, forestry, mining and
quarrying.
It stipulates punishment for absence
without leave, intoxication, careless or
improper performance of work,
disobedience, abusive or insulting
language, or leaving " masteV's service
without lawful cause."
" On discharge from pnson, if the
employe fails to resume his service, he
can be sentenced to successive
sentences of one month's imprisonment
under similar conditions until he
consents to and does resume his
service," the U N. report said
Bridge near McBaine
scheduled for repair
By Martha Polkey
Missourtaa staff writer
A bridge west of McBaine at the end
of Route K, used frequently by large
trucks, will be closed Monday for about
a week while it is being repaired.
The bridge will be refloored and a
supporting beam will be fixed, said
John Whiteside, Boone County map
coordinator.
The need for repairs was discovered
during an inspection earlier this week
by Bob Crabtree, a Kansas City
engineering consultant He inspected
four heavily used county bridges as
part of a state- financ- ed program.
Crabtree said two other bridges need
repairs in the near future. One is
located Vk miles ( 2.4 kilometers) north
of Easley on Smith Hatchery Road. The
other is 1 mile ( 1 6 kilometers) north of
Route NN near Harnsburg. A fourth
bridge near Harnsburg was in good
condition.
Northern District Judge Rodney
Smith said the four bndges were
inspected because they are on school
bus routes or on roads subject to heavy
traffic.
Crabtree commended the overall
maintenance of bridges.
" The county has done a great job
considering the limited amount of funds
they have been given," he said
Work to be done on the Easley bridge
will include installing guard rails, floor
repair and installing signs designating
the approach to the bridge. Repairs will
not begin for at least two weeks.
The bridge near Harnsburg needs re-alignment,
but repairs there will not
begin immediately either, Whiteside
said.
Crabtree said the bndges were
typical of county bndges. " They are
quite old, with some problems." He
estimated the bridges could last for
another five to 10 years, with the
exception of the McBaine bridge, which
with repairs would not need
replacement for up to 20 years.
Bus limit foes meet tonight
Persons opposing the Columbia
school board's decision to increase
mileage requirements for free
transportation for junior and senior
high school students will meet at 7: 30
pjn. today. The meeting will be in the .
community service room at the Farm
and Home Savings & Loan Association,
725 E. Broadway.
The board recently increased the
mileage requirement for Junior and
senior high school students from 2 miles
( 3.2 kilometers.) to 3tt miles ( 5.6
kilometers), meaning only those
students living more than 3V4 miles
from school are eligible for free
transportation.
A petition drive has been started to
restore school bus service to the
previous limits. A drive organizer said
the purpose of tonight's meeting is to
unify the groups supporting the
petition.
BtftjaTWBBiBBHwHPy ' MBKKKBBBBBBEtBKMBBKSttKUHKR
While' other parts of the Midwest suffer from devastating
drought conditions, Wednesday's showers brought some
relief to Columbia's dry weather and to pedestrians ready for
a change of pace. Sandy Dye, 103 Longfellow Lane, enjoys a
walk through some puddles left by the welcomed rain.
( Missourian photo by Tim McKay)
Midwest
drought
continues
By United Press International
While a brief thunderstorm brought
some relief to Columbia Wednesday,
Nebraska's governor planned to
declare 25 counties drought disaster
areas and forest fires crackled through
thousands of acres of Under- dr- y
woodlands in the Midwest northlands
Gov J J Exon said he would meet
with advisers Fnday and " based on the
information I have now, I will be
declaring a disaster area in some 25
counties "
The long dry summer baking much of
the Midwest appeared sure to take a
heavy toll in crops It was also the key
factor in two giant forest fires in
Michigan and Minnesota
" It's so dry in Upper Michigan and a
lot of Minnesota the air crackles," a
National Forest Service spokesman
said
More than 360 fire fighters from
seven states were trying to contain the
fire that has burned more than 30,000
acres ( 12,000 hectares) in Michigan's
Upper Peninsula
The fire in the Seney National
Wildhfe Refuge and the adjacent
Mamstique State Forest was
Michigan's worst of its kind in 37 years
Airborne tankers were flown in from
Aaska to water- bom- b the blaze Fire
fighters came from as far off as Idaho
Vacationing tourists were warned to
stay out of the area.
The fire fighters were hindered by
bogs and swamps
" It's difficult for the men to get into
many areas because they find
themselves waist deep in swamp," a
spokesman said " We just can't take
our equipment into some areas." He ,
said a bulldozer sank in one swamp. I
Two B17 bombers and six other
aircraft were dumping about 50,000
gallons ( 190,000 liters) of water a day on
the fire eating its way through 2,600
acres ( 1,040 hectares) of Minnesota's
eastern Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
It was the worst of 50 to 60 forest,
grass and peat bog fires going in the
state. State Conservation
Commissioner Robert Herbst called the
fire danger the " most serious since 1936
and possibly the worst since 1918."
While the drought belt prayed for
ram, thunderstorms broke out over the
Gulf and southeast Atlantic coast areas
and in parts of Nebraska, South
Dakota, Indiana, Kentucky and
Tennessee.